This article is about Stephen Bannon, chief strategist and senior counsel to Electoral College President Elect (ECPE) Trump, but starts with Kellyanne Conway.

The other day, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, bless her soul, said Kellyanne Conway was a nice person. Really? She also believes that as a spokesperson for ECPE Trump, Conway didn’t seem to be speaking for Trump much at all, a puppet without a hand.

Nice quote and I agree with the observation. But what I really want to know is, in the absence of Conway on the inside, who is running the show?

Its not Trump, he is a loose cannon with nary a plan or policy bumping about in the barren landscape between his ears. Pence? Who? Putin, maybe but not yet, secure coms required are too difficult to organize from Trump Tower.

Steve Bannon, on the other hand…..

It would be plain stupid to dismiss the Alt Right Standard bearer as we might vacant-minded ideologues. He is sharp. But if you don’t see a resurrection of Cheney like dark desires or the re-sharpening of Carl Rove’s bloody knives of divisive politics, look again. Bannon channels them, adding a generous splash of his own a brand of special hate sauce .

But unlike Cheney and Rove, Bannon is hides in the shadows. In the almost two months after his appointment, hardly a word. Search the internet: almost nothing. His is the politics of the unelected and unaccountable. His are words whispered in the back room of the back rooms.

Yet, if we can tear our eyes from the bawling tweets of ECPE Trump, we can see Bannon’s imprint on many goings on. Consider:

Politically appointed diplomats fired against long held convention before inauguration day. No chance of anyone speaking out.

Gender and climate change witch hunts at the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, a move designed to scare progressive voices in any and all government agencies.

Taking a call from Taiwanese president before China’s regardless of the danger and consequences.

Office of Congressional Ethics back down, staged to make Trump look ethical?

Bannon is building a political empire within and without of government. His is a strategy based on fear, the execution of which is cold, vicious political calculation. This will inevitably lead to ineffectual, ass-kissing functionaries rising to the top: the game plan of every evil third world dictator.

If you don’t think the chief strategist has the mettle or mind to do so, read these inspiring character building Bannon quotes:

“I’m going to ram it down her fucking throat,” Bannon reportedly said, referring to what he would do with Abigail Alling and her worker safety warnings at the Mars Biosphere project. (reported in BuzzFeed, August 2016)

“We think of ourselves as virulently anti-establishment, particularly ‘anti-’ the permanent political class,” he told the Washington Post. (Washington Post, January 2016)

“It’s going to be an insurgent, center-right populist movement that is virulently anti-establishment, and it’s going to continue to hammer this city, both the progressive left and the institutional Republican Party.” (Washington Post, January 2016)

Like some ghoul hiding behind the screens, Bannon has ample cover from his impulsive political twitter brat boss, and is just getting started.

If the conventional press continues to treat ECPE Trump seriously, or as if he is doing anything purposely, they are missing the real story. Vigilance is in order: